OpenMoko Project put on Ice

With its open source operating system, the OpenMoko Project was once the pride of the community. Now, however, development of the new model will cease.

One of Switzerland's leading newspapers, The Berner Zeitung, reports that OpenMoko's planned Smartphone GTA03 has been put on ice and according to CEO Sean Moss-Pultz, speaking at the OpenExpo in Bern, the Taiwanese company FIC is laying off half its workforce.

Despite limited resources, development of the Smartphone will continue. Moss-Pultz called for the community to help the project by purchasing the current model, programming new applications and removing bugs. He hopes to implement such changes in later versions.

Meanwhile, OpenMoko is following Plan B: the company wants to release another device that also uses open source software, said Moss-Pultz at the conference. He declined to go into detail, but it will not be a telecommunications device.

As OpenMoko CEO Sean Moss-Pultz was announcing his departure from the mobile phone project, he mentioned as an aside that we was indeed working on yet another project. His Plan B has now been completed.